Loyola hosts Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp

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The 17th annual Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp started this week at Loyola University New Orleans and will continue through July 22. This is the second year for Loyola to host the camp, which will focus solely on the music of New Orleans and give young students the opportunity to learn from the city’s top jazz musicians.

“New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz so it should be the mecca of jazz education for young people,” said Jackie Harris, executive director of the Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. “Parents feel very happy about their kids having the opportunity to learn from jazz greats. The people teaching at the jazz camp are people that taught famous artists, such as Wynton Marsalis, Donald Harrison Jr., Branford Marsalis and Nicholas Payton. Our alumni really are a direct product of what can happen when a young person works hard, is committed, and then has the opportunity to study from someone who is at the top of their craft.”

Camp days will be divided into two parts, with students receiving guidance through both individual instruction and ensemble settings. The summer camp will culminate with a free public concert featuring the students and the Treme Brass Band on Friday, July 22 at 8 p.m. at the University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center.

The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and Loyola University have developed a long and meaningful relationship between their summer programs by providing highly-accomplished jazz musicians to train and expand musical opportunities for the younger generation. In addition to underwriting and producing the Louis ‘Satchmo’ Summer Jazz Camp, the Armstrong Educational Foundation recently announced they are also providing a $25,000 grant to support Loyola’s 2012 Annual Jazz Festival which takes place next spring.

“Our immediate objective is to support the festival and to provide access to good jazz music education to young New Orleans students who do not readily have that opportunity,” said Harris in a letter to the Dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts, Donald Boomgaarden, Ph.D., “Therefore, we are pleased to join hands with Loyola in an outreach endeavor that will target local public and charter schools that are attempting to include music education as part of their daily curriculum.”

More information on camp offerings, auditions and fees can be found online at www.louisarmstrongjazzcamp.com. To arrange an interview with camp leaders, contact Loyola’s Office of Public Affairs at 504-861-5888.